Anaclitic depression is condition described by René Spitz in the 1940s in which infants raised in a clean but emotionally cold institutional environments displayed reactions that resembled a depressive disorder, including weeping, withdrawal, apathy, weight loss, sleep disturbance, an overall decline in development, and in some cases even death.

In more general use it denotes a syndrome of similar withdrawal features in infants seperated from their mothers for a long time.